Targeted Drug Delivery in Brain Tumor Microenvironments

A Special Issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923) belonging to the section "Drug Delivery and Controlled Release".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 1840

Editors


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Guest Editor
Institut de Neurophysiopathologie, INP, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, 27 Boulevard Jean Moulin, 13005 Marseille, France
Interests: glioblastomas; brain drug delivery; nanomedicine; preclinical model; drug repurposing; surgery; tumour microenvironment
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Guest Editor
Biodiscovery Institute, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Interests: neuro-oncology; drug delivery; tumour microenvironment; glioblastoma; high grade gliomas; medulloblastoma; metabolomics; proteomics; hydrogels

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Consideration of the brain tumour microenvironment is gaining momentum in the neuro-oncology field. The microenvironment is a complex ecosystem consisting of many cell types, such as astrocytes, neurons, microglia and immune cells, which we understand play a role in tumour development and progression.

Many drug delivery techniques are in development for brain tumours due to their poor prognosis and their barriers to treatment, such as the blood brain barrier, off-target toxicity and tumour heterogeneity. These drug delivery systems are now becoming more targeted against both brain tumour cells and the local microenvironment.

This Special Issue will address new developments in the area of targeted drug delivery for brain tumours. We invite articles on all classifications of brain tumours, looking at both the systemic and local delivery of therapeutics that target the tumour and/or its microenvironment. Original research papers and review articles are welcome.

Dr. Chiara Bastiancich
Dr. Phoebe McCrorie
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • neuro-oncology
  • drug delivery
  • tumour microenvironment
  • targeted drug delivery
  • glioblastoma
  • medulloblastoma

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

23 pages, 1059 KB  
Review
Surface-Modified Polymeric Nanoparticles for Glioblastoma Therapy: A Review on Targeting Strategies and Delivery of Repurposed Drugs and Off-Label Non-Alkylating Agents
by Daniela Maria Sousa, Joana Angélica Loureiro, Maria Carmo Pereira and Maria João Ramalho
Pharmaceutics 2026, 18(4), 435; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics18040435 - 31 Mar 2026
Viewed by 1346
Abstract
Glioblastoma (GBM) remains the most aggressive primary brain tumor, with poor outcomes under the current standard-of-care with temozolomide (TMZ). Therapeutic failure is multifactorial, mainly driven by TMZ resistance mediated by DNA repair enzymes (MGMT), and an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Drug repurposing and the [...] Read more.
Glioblastoma (GBM) remains the most aggressive primary brain tumor, with poor outcomes under the current standard-of-care with temozolomide (TMZ). Therapeutic failure is multifactorial, mainly driven by TMZ resistance mediated by DNA repair enzymes (MGMT), and an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Drug repurposing and the off-label use of chemotherapeutics have emerged as a strategy to identify non-alkylating agents capable of bypassing MGMT-mediated resistance in GBM. Despite their promise, the effective delivery of these drugs to the brain remains a major challenge due to the low-permeability nature of the blood–brain barrier (BBB). Thus, surface-modified polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged as adaptable platforms for encapsulating chemically diverse payloads, thereby improving their pharmacokinetics and enabling controlled release at the tumor site. This review critically analyzes ligand-functionalized polymeric NPs for GBM therapy and discusses the integration of repurposed and off-label non-alkylating agents with nanocarrier engineering, focusing on non-alkylating agents as they are MGMT-independent candidates. Furthermore, this review synthesizes recent advances in ligand-functionalized polymeric nanoformulations encapsulating non-alkylating agents for GBM, critically outlining their targeting and transport strategies, design and validation challenges, and future directions. Across the included studies, receptor-targeted surface engineering frequently enhances cellular uptake and in vitro efficacy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Targeted Drug Delivery in Brain Tumor Microenvironments)
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